


Chasing the Sun

by Orlha



Series: Drabbling in Narutoverse [9]
Category: Naruto
Genre: Gen, Good!Orochimaru, Hokage!Orochimaru, Missing nin Jiraiya, Role Reversal, Sealmaster!Tsunade, this plot bunny bugged me for ages
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-02
Updated: 2018-03-02
Packaged: 2019-03-26 02:42:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 913
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13848387
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Orlha/pseuds/Orlha
Summary: An AU where Orochimaru is the Legendary Medic-nin, Tsunade is the famous Seal-master/Spymaster and Jiraiya is the one who defects.





	Chasing the Sun

Orochimaru wakes up to the presence beside him and for the first five seconds, he wonders why his anbu had not announced his late-night visitor. “Tsunade?” he rasps, his voice still heavy with sleep. 

“Maru,” her husky voice replies him in that exasperated tone that he remembers almost fondly. “What kind of guards do you have if they fall asleep on duty?” 

He rests the back of his hand on his eyes with a sigh. “The ones that aren't a match for Konoha’s seal master.” 

She snorts and Orochimaru hears a swish of cloth as she crosses her legs. “You need better guards,” Tsunade declares. 

“You could stay and teach them,” he says. The words hang heavily in the dark and Orochimaru regrets voicing them. 

“You know I can't,” she says with a voice so tight that it sounded like she had to strain to speak. 

“I know.” 

Orochimaru understands. He understands her deep curdling dislike for Konoha as a village, as a _home._ It doesn't mean he can empathise with it. He remembers a time where his two best friends were there beside him, where their warm presence was an anchor to his quavering heart. Now there's only him left. 

He reaches out and curls his hand around hers the way she used to do for him. Orochimaru wishes he could do more. She's mended his broken heart when he needed it the most, but even his best efforts haven't yielded any results. Her fingers tighten around his and he counts it a win. 

“It's a black market,” Tsunade tells him. She doesn't need to tell who or what, Orochimaru knows that there can only one person that would drive her back to Konoha to report - Jiraiya. “A shinobi black market.” 

“What?” Orochimaru sits up in a hurry, his feet pressing against the cold floor before he can finish. He shoves on his gear, stalking down the hallway and out of the window with Tsunade following him. “What did you say?” he asks again.

They leap across the rooftops, his anbu guard belatedly following him when she finally releases the seals. Tsunade purses her lips. Her fingers twitching almost erratically. Cursing himself for not noticing it earlier, Orochimaru presses a green lit hand on her arm as they slide into his office. Her nerves are fried and not the sort from adrenaline or stress.

Someone _tortured_ her. 

Where is Shizune? Or the pig he gifted her? How had she even made it back to Konoha in this state? 

Orochimaru frets and motions to his anbu to pull a chair up. “Report,” he orders. Tsunade immediately squares her shoulders, sitting up as much as her injuries would allow her to. 

“Shizune and I… We found traces of Jiraiya activities,” she begins haltingly. There is no more of that brash, violent woman that Orochimaru is fond of. Only the one that has survived of things that Orochimaru knows he doesn't want to hear but will listen anyway, because he is a medic and a Hokage. What kind of Hokage will he be if he doesn't care for his shinobis? What kind of legendary medic would he be if he doesn’t care for the people he love?

He sinks his chakra deep into her nerves, repairing them as it travels down her body. “The people he sells… they’re not all _shinobis_ …” Tsunade sags. “They are… some of them…” She stares at her hands, opening and closing them as though she’s imagining something that happened then.

“Some of them are just children. _Toddlers._ ” 

Orochimaru blames the late nights he’s been having for the static in his ears, the chill down his spine and the world tilting on its axis at her words. 

No. 

He wants to throw her words and pretend he never heard it. Jiraiya was the sun in Team Seven, the one that always had a goofy smile and a larger than life personality. Even when he defected, Orochimaru had hoped that it was a lapse of decision making. He had held the fort down like Jiraiya and Sensei asked, hadn’t he? Had he not done everything right? 

Why won’t they all come home? 

His knees hit the back of the chair that his anbu had caught him with. His hand reaching out to squeeze her hand. 

Why? Why would he do that? Jiraiya was an orphan whose parents had died to slave traders. Why would he do the same thing to other people? 

Tsunade’s calloused hands cup his face. “Maru… I’m sorry. I’m so sorry… I know you loved him.” She thumbs the tears that he didn’t know he had and presses her forehead against his. “But the Jiraiya we knew… there’s none of him left.”

“Not as a lover!” Orochimaru retorts without even processing the words that are so familiar to him. 

“But as a brother,” Tsunade finishes his sentence for him. 

Drawing himself up, he makes way for his table. He doesn’t want to do it. To label his brother as a missing-nin, to send Hunter-nins after Jiraiya. What has he sacrificed a decade for? Orochimaru turns. Outside, the sun is just starting to peek into the sky. The melange of pink chasing the dark away, the soft rays illuminating the streets and rooftops. 

“Masa Jiraiya, former Konoha-nin, is now a missing-nin. Ranked S-rank,” he says. His voice is steady, belying the guilt and fear churning in his stomach. 

The sun, the sun isn’t Jiraiya, Orochimaru realises. The sun is Konoha.

 

**Author's Note:**

> This AU bugged me for ages. I wanted to write a Orochimaru that stayed, a Jiraiya that left and a Tsunade that still worked for Konoha even though she found no pleasure in it. Some headcanons I have for this AU that I couldn't quite fit in:
> 
> \- Tsunade is a frontliner, not like a medic nin but a ninjutsu+Fuinjutsu frontliner. That seal-touches in battle.  
> \- Orochimaru is the one that lingers behind because he might be a front liner but he's still a medic  
> \- Katsuya would be an offensive summon instead of a healing summon. Manda would probably still be an offensive one but a bodyguard one.  
> \- Uchiha massacre never happens cuz Orochimaru picked up the hat after Yondaime died and Danzo couldn't get pass Orochimaru's sharp eyes.  
> \- Danzo might be dead. Orochimaru never liked him and after he finds out about Root, he doesn't give Danzo a second chance to dissemble it.  
> \- Sasuke might be a medic-nin this time. Or kidnapped by Jiraiya.  
> \- Sakura would be mentored by Kakashi instead of one of the Sannin.  
> \- Naruto would be mentored by Tsunade who beats manners into him.


End file.
